i went outdoors

on the bike! it was in the low 40's and really sunny, so why stay inside! this beats the trainer any day. This is also the first ride that I have done outside with the PowerTap. Here is what the graph looks like:
I had to smooth the heck out of it to make it resemble something readible. At the default settings the graphs were just a gobblygook mess. Here is the elevation profile so you can line up the hills with the graphs (somewhat):
So if you look at in the middle of the graphs, you will notice that the blue and purple lines cross, this means that I am climbing up the largest hill of the ride. In other words my speed (blue line) drops, while the torque (purple line) spikes along with the wattage/power (yellow line). This gives me a better understanding of how torque, speed, and wattage all play together, especually while climbing. The opposite is true between the 10 and 12.5 min marks when speed increases, and torque and power tank....this means I am going down a hill.

Pretty cool stuff!

increasing run-nin-ning

did 45 mins on the dreadmill up here in snowy NH. so thats about 5 miles. That comes out to ~13 miles this week. I am slowly ramping my mileage back up in the runner department. I remember averaging 15 miles per week over the summer and I didn't realize I was putting that much in. Now it takes so much effort to just get through half of that.

Im becoming better friends with the treadmill....able to tolerate it more, BUT I'm looking forward to getting out onto the road. Its supposed to be in the 50's-60's tomorrow, but alas I will be in a car driving.

BUT! Monday and Tuesday are looking like possible biking days!

run, swim, and MOVED

Did a 36 min/4 mile dreadmill run yesterday afternoon. Yeah, a 9 min/mile pace on the dreadmill is a lot freaking harder than a 9 min/mile pace on the road, even going uphill. I sustained a 3 min 9 min/mile interval but realized at the end of it it was more like an 8:30 pace on the road.

Then today I did a half mile swim in about 25 mins. My swimming endurance is completely shot. I was doing mostly 50's and had to stop and take a short betwen between. I'll get it back, and this time with MUCH better form.

And I am excited to say that my company has moved right smack in the middle of my training ground over in northern Greenwich, CT/Armonk, NY. Now I don't have to drive up there everyday after work, i'll just go FROM work. And to top things off, I will still be able to go the pool during lunch. Its gonna be great and our new facility is just gorgeous.

updates

Did a 35 min super boring indoor training ride this past Thursday AM. I was holding about 200 watts and was suffering a bit. Who knows.

Took yesterday completely off.

Then this morning ran 5 miles in 45 mins on the dreadmill. It actually went by fairly quick since I was doing an extended ladder interval session. It hurt, but I am maintaining my running really well now. I upped my mileage 10% from last week, and I can up my mileage another 10% this coming week if I just do 4, 4, and 5 mile runs.

Monday the 5th of January I will be on a treadmill doing my anaerobic threshold(AT) testing which will set me up for my first running race on the 10th. I am all signed up as a member of the New York Road Runners club (nyrr.org). This race will be a 5 milers around Central Park. I have never ran around Central Park, but I look forward to it and I hope that it won't be too freaking cold!

easy run and early next season

Did 30 mins @ about a 10 min/mile pace on the dreadmill this morning. Just wanted to take it easy and recover from last night. I did 3 miles.

So last night @ spin class I talked with my coach about coaching and early next season. I am gonna be busy! Once per week I will be doing yoga, Kettles and Bells, a spin class, and the next level up swim class. The Kettles and Bells class is a soviet era style dead weight lifting class that works on your core and strength muscles. This will help with explosive energy. Its gonna hurt @ first (prolly will continue to hurt no matter what) but it will help tighten me up, I hope.

so so spin class

I coulda gone harder tonight, and my power data showed! You can't hide when using this thing. If you look in the middle of the graph, you can see 6, 4 minute efforts. You will notice that the 4th has the highest power and speed shown, this is due to the fact that I was working REALLY hard during that interval. Then if you look @ #5, you will notice that it is the lowest overall out of the 6, and this is due to the fact that I could have (and definately should have) used 1 harder gear.

I slacked off, and I will admit that.

As for #6, you can see high cadence #'s and speed. This happens when you pull up while pedaling. Amazing what happens when you engage a full range of muscles during a pedal stroke. YOU GO FASTER!

outdoor run and final swim class

I actually ran outdoors this morning. It was 50 degrees, so why not take advantage of that!

I was quickly reminded (as I was on Saturday AM) that a treadmill does NOT replace running outdoors. Sure, you can run fast on a treadmill, but that is peanuts compared to the variability of running outdoors on uneven and rolling terrain. I put in a good run: 3.82 miles in 33:45, or about 8:50 min/miles.

Then tonight was my final swim class. We were videotaped completely above water this time, which was good, because it showed off this funky right arm recovery swing that I did, some strange left handed flippy thing before the recovery, and a left armed cross over. YIKES! Thats quite the list on my "bad habits to break" list. Fortunately I think I have kicked the squiggly arm, but I am going to monitor that sucker to make sure it DOESNT come back. At least with swimming its pretty dang clear on what you need to fix. Well at least I will have goals!

I am still writing up my adventure relay race from this past weekend. Its a looooooooong one.